A freighter and two smaller ships carrying hundreds of tons of aid to the Gaza Strip from Cyprus were proceeding in calm seas without incident, Cypriot government representatives told dpa on Sunday.
Cypriot radio reported that the freighter Jennifer and the tugboats Open Arms and Ledra Dynamic were expected to arrive off the war zone’s coast on Monday afternoon.
Discharging the freight is expected to be problematic. A temporary pier has been erected, and one of the tugboats is towing a platform loaded with relief supplies, with the intention of using it to transfer the supplies to the pier.
There is no suitable port along the Gaza Strip, and the sea is shallow.
This is the second aid delivery by sea from Cyprus. Around a fortnight ago, the tugboat from the aid organization of the same name, Open Arms, brought around 200 tons of material and food to the Gaza Strip.
The non-governmental organization (NGO) World Central Kitchen was responsible for distributing the relief supplies to the people – and that is the plan this time as well.
The government of Cyprus is awaiting completion of a large floating dock off the Gaza Strip coast by mid-April.
“The aim is to send an increasing amount of goods with each of these voyages, but this will only take place once the platform provided by the Americans is complete,” Cypriot Foreign Minister Konstantinos Kombos told national radio after the ships sailed from Larnaca on Saturday.
Philippe Lazzarini, the commissioner-general of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), called for increased global pressure on Israel to work with the U.N.
In a Friday post on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, Lazzarini referenced a Thursday order from the International Court of Justice (ICJ) to Israel to facilitate humanitarian aid getting into Gaza. The order also noted that there is no substitute for crossings via land for supplies.
“Member states should exert more pressure to implement the ICJ order,” Lazzarini said in his post. “Those who stopped funding UNRWA should reconsider their decision to allow the Agency to fulfill its mandate including help averting famine.”
Last week, Cindy McCain, executive director of the United Nations’ World Food Programme (WFP), said that there is an urgent need for food in Gaza amid the war occurring there.
“[O]ur obstacles are many,” McCain said in an interview on MSNBC’s “Andrea Mitchell Reports”. “We have to be cleared at every level, the Israelis block the — whether or not we’re cleared … drivers are cleared, we don’t have the access on the roads. We need clear, unfettered access to get in at scale, so we can feed the millions of people who are on the verge of famine.”
The ICJ’s order followed a plea from South Africa for the U.N. high court to do more after an earlier ruling from January has not bettered the current drastic humanitarian situation in Gaza. In their recent order, the ICJ said that Gaza’s situation has gone downhill since January.
“The Court observes with regret that, since then, the catastrophic living conditions of the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip have deteriorated further,” the ICJ said in the order, “in particular in view of the prolonged and widespread deprivation of food and other basic necessities to which the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip have been subjected.”
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JERUSALEM — A three-ship convoy left a port in Cyprus on Saturday with 400 tons of food and other supplies for Gaza as concerns about hunger in the territory soar.
World Central Kitchen said the vessels and a barge were carrying ready-to-eat items like rice, pasta, flour, legumes, canned vegetables and proteins that were enough to prepare more than 1 million meals. Also on board were dates, which are traditionally eaten to break the daily fast during the holy month of Ramadan.
It was not clear when the ships would reach Gaza. An Open Arms ship inaugurated the direct sea route to the Palestinian territory earlier this month with 200 tons of food, water and other aid.
The United Nations and partners have warned that famine could occur in devastated, largely isolated northern Gaza as early as this month. Humanitarian officials say deliveries by sea and air are not enough and that Israel must allow far more aid by road. The top U.N. court has ordered Israel to open more land crossings and take other measures to address the humanitarian crisis.
Cargo ships loaded with aid destined for Gaza prepare to set sail outside the Cypriot port of Larnaca on Saturday.Petros Karadjias / AP
Meanwhile, the United States welcomed the formation of a new Palestinian autonomy government, signaling it is accepting the revised Cabinet lineup as a step toward political reform.
The Biden administration has called for “revitalizing” the West Bank-based Palestinian Authority in the hope that it can also administer the Gaza Strip once the Israel-Hamas war ends. It is headed by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, who tapped U.S.-educated economist Mohammad Mustafa as prime minister earlier this month.
But both Israel and Hamas — which drove Abbas’ security forces from Gaza in a 2007 takeover — reject the idea of it administering Gaza, and Hamas rejects the formation of the new Palestinian government as illegitimate. The authority also has little popular support or legitimacy among Palestinians because of its security cooperation with Israel in the West Bank.
The war began after Hamas-led militants stormed across southern Israel on Oct. 7, killing 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and taking about 250 others hostage.
Palestinian women arrange kitchen utensils to dry atop a destroyed car at a makeshift camp for displaced people in Rafah on Saturday.Mohammed Abed / AFP – Getty Images
More than 400 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces or settlers in the West Bank or east Jerusalem since Oct. 7, according to local health authorities. Dr. Fawaz Hamad, director of Al-Razi Hospital in Jenin, told local station Awda TV that Israeli forces killed a 13-year-old boy in nearby Qabatiya early Saturday. Israel’s military said the incident was under review.
A major challenge for anyone administering Gaza will be reconstruction. Nearly six months of war has destroyed critical infrastructure including hospitals, schools and homes as well as roads, sewage systems and the electrical grid.
Airstrikes and Israel’s ground offensive have left 32,705 Palestinians dead, local health authorities said Saturday, with 82 bodies taken to hospitals in the past 24 hours. Gaza’s Health Ministry doesn’t distinguish between civilians and combatants in its toll but has said the majority of those killed have been women and children.
Israel says over one-third of the dead are militants, though it has not provided evidence to support that, and it blames Hamas for civilian casualties because the group operates in residential areas.
The fighting has displaced over 80% of Gaza’s population and pushed hundreds of thousands to the brink of famine, the U.N. and international aid agencies say. Israel’s military said it continued to strike dozens of targets in Gaza, days after the United Nations Security Council issued its first demand for a cease-fire.
A displaced Palestinian girl washes kitchen utensils on the beach as fishermen sail in a boat in Rafah on Saturday.Mohammed Abed / AFP – Getty Images
Aid also fell on Gaza. The U.S. military during an airdrop on Friday said it had released over 100,000 pounds of aid that day and almost a million pounds overall, part of a multi-country effort.
Israel has said that after the war it will maintain open-ended security control over Gaza and partner with Palestinians who are not affiliated with the Palestinian Authority or Hamas. It’s unclear who in Gaza would be willing to take on such a role.
Hamas has warned Palestinians in Gaza against cooperating with Israel to administer the territory, saying anyone who does will be treated as a collaborator, which is understood as a death threat. Hamas calls instead for all Palestinian factions to form a power-sharing government ahead of national elections, which have not taken place in 18 years.
JERUSALEM — A three-ship convoy left a port in Cyprus on Saturday with 400 tons of food and other supplies for Gaza as concerns about hunger in the territory soar.
World Central Kitchen said the vessels and a barge were carrying ready-to-eat items like rice, pasta, flour, legumes, canned vegetables and proteins that were enough to prepare more than 1 million meals. Also on board were dates, which are traditionally eaten to break the daily fast during the holy month of Ramadan.
It was not clear when the ships would reach Gaza. An Open Arms ship inaugurated the direct sea route to the Palestinian territory earlier this month with 200 tons of food, water and other aid.
The United Nations and partners have warned that famine could occur in devastated, largely isolated northern Gaza as early as this month. Humanitarian officials say deliveries by sea and air are not enough and that Israel must allow far more aid by road. The top U.N. court has ordered Israel to open more land crossings and take other measures to address the humanitarian crisis.
Cargo ships loaded with aid destined for Gaza prepare to set sail outside the Cypriot port of Larnaca, Cyprus, on Saturday.Petros Karadjias / AP
Meanwhile, the United States welcomed the formation of a new Palestinian autonomy government, signaling it is accepting the revised Cabinet lineup as a step toward political reform.
The Biden administration has called for “revitalizing” the West Bank-based Palestinian Authority in the hope that it can also administer the Gaza Strip once the Israel-Hamas war ends. It is headed by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, who tapped U.S.-educated economist Mohammad Mustafa as prime minister earlier this month.
But both Israel and Hamas — which drove Abbas’ security forces from Gaza in a 2007 takeover — reject the idea of it administering Gaza, and Hamas rejects the formation of the new Palestinian government as illegitimate. The authority also has little popular support or legitimacy among Palestinians because of its security cooperation with Israel in the West Bank.
The war began after Hamas-led militants stormed across southern Israel on Oct. 7, killing 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and taking about 250 others hostage.
Palestinian women arrange kitchen utensils to dry atop a destroyed car at a makeshift camp for displaced people in Rafah on Saturday.Mohammed Abed / AFP – Getty Images
More than 400 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces or settlers in the West Bank or east Jerusalem since Oct. 7, according to local health authorities. Dr. Fawaz Hamad, director of Al-Razi Hospital in Jenin, told local station Awda TV that Israeli forces killed a 13-year-old boy in nearby Qabatiya early Saturday. Israel’s military said the incident was under review.
A major challenge for anyone administering Gaza will be reconstruction. Nearly six months of war has destroyed critical infrastructure including hospitals, schools and homes as well as roads, sewage systems and the electrical grid.
Airstrikes and Israel’s ground offensive have left 32,705 Palestinians dead, local health authorities said Saturday, with 82 bodies taken to hospitals in the past 24 hours. Gaza’s Health Ministry doesn’t distinguish between civilians and combatants in its toll but has said the majority of those killed have been women and children.
Israel says over one-third of the dead are militants, though it has not provided evidence to support that, and it blames Hamas for civilian casualties because the group operates in residential areas.
The fighting has displaced over 80% of Gaza’s population and pushed hundreds of thousands to the brink of famine, the U.N. and international aid agencies say. Israel’s military said it continued to strike dozens of targets in Gaza, days after the United Nations Security Council issued its first demand for a cease-fire.
A displaced Palestinian girl washes kitchen utensils on the beach as fishermen sail in a boat in Rafah on Saturday.Mohammed Abed / AFP – Getty Images
Aid also fell on Gaza. The U.S. military during an airdrop on Friday said it had released over 100,000 pounds of aid that day and almost a million pounds overall, part of a multi-country effort.
Israel has said that after the war it will maintain open-ended security control over Gaza and partner with Palestinians who are not affiliated with the Palestinian Authority or Hamas. It’s unclear who in Gaza would be willing to take on such a role.
Hamas has warned Palestinians in Gaza against cooperating with Israel to administer the territory, saying anyone who does will be treated as a collaborator, which is understood as a death threat. Hamas calls instead for all Palestinian factions to form a power-sharing government ahead of national elections, which have not taken place in 18 years.
A three-ship convoy left a port in Cyprus on Saturday with 400 tons of food and other supplies for Gaza as concerns about hunger in the territory soar.
World Central Kitchen said the vessels and a barge were carrying an estimated 300 tons of ready-to-eat items like rice, pasta, flour, legumes, canned vegetables and proteins that were enough to prepare more than 1 million meals. Also on board were dates, which are traditionally eaten to break the daily fast during the holy month of Ramadan.
Earlier in March, World Central Kitchen, which is led by celebrity chef José Andrés, brought 200 tons of food, water and other aid to the Palestinian territory via an Open Arms ship. That was the first food delivery made by sea since the outbreak of the war.
The United Nations and partners have warned that famine could occur in devastated, largely isolated northern Gaza as early as this month. CBS News previously reported that an estimated 1.7 million people in Gaza have been displaced in the territory, according to the United Nations, with many having no access to food, water, medicine or appropriate shelter.
World Central Kitchen told CBS News that it has sent more than 37 million meals to the territory since Oct. 7, when Hamas militants launched a terror attack in Israel that triggered the war. World Central Kitchen also said it opened more than 60 community kitchens in the territory. The organization has also airdropped meals into the region, and delivered food to families in Lebanon who have been displaced by the conflict.
A cargo ship, right, and a ship belonging to the Open Arms aid group, are loaded with 240 tons of canned food destined for Gaza prepare to set sail.
Petros Karadjias / AP
Humanitarian officials say deliveries by sea and air are not enough and that Israel must allow far more aid by road. The top U.N. court has ordered Israel to open more land crossings and take other measures to address the humanitarian crisis.
Meanwhile, the United States welcomed the formation of a new Palestinian autonomy government, signaling it is accepting the revised Cabinet lineup as a step toward political reform.
The Biden administration has called for “revitalizing” the West Bank-based Palestinian Authority in the hope that it can also administer the Gaza Strip once the Israel-Hamas war ends. It is headed by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, who tapped U.S.-educated economist Mohammad Mustafa as prime minister earlier this month.
But both Israel and Hamas — which drove Abbas’ security forces from Gaza in a 2007 takeover — reject the idea of it administering Gaza, and Hamas rejects the formation of the new Palestinian government as illegitimate. The authority also has little popular support or legitimacy among Palestinians because of its security cooperation with Israel in the West Bank.
The war began after Hamas-led militants stormed across southern Israel on Oct. 7, killing 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and taking about 250 others hostage.
More than 400 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces or settlers in the West Bank or east Jerusalem since Oct. 7, according to local health authorities. Dr. Fawaz Hamad, director of Al-Razi Hospital in Jenin, told local station Awda TV that Israeli forces killed a 13-year-old boy in nearby Qabatiya early Saturday. Israel’s military said the incident was under review.
World Food Programme said famine is imminent in Gaza if aid is not increased exponentially
02:56
A major challenge for anyone administering Gaza will be reconstruction. Nearly six months of war has destroyed critical infrastructure including hospitals, schools and homes as well as roads, sewage systems and the electrical grid.
Airstrikes and Israel’s ground offensive have left 32,705 Palestinians dead, local health authorities said Saturday, with 82 bodies taken to hospitals in the past 24 hours. Gaza’s Health Ministry doesn’t distinguish between civilians and combatants in its toll but has said the majority of those killed have been women and children.
Israel says over one-third of the dead are militants, though it has not provided evidence to support that, and it blames Hamas for civilian casualties because the group operates in residential areas.
The fighting has displaced over 80% of Gaza’s population and pushed hundreds of thousands to the brink of famine, the U.N. and international aid agencies say. Israel’s military said it continued to strike dozens of targets in Gaza, days after the United Nations Security Council issued its first demand for a cease-fire.
Aid also fell on Gaza. The U.S. military during an airdrop on Friday said it had released over 100,000 pounds of aid that day and almost a million pounds overall, part of a multi-country effort.
Israel has said that after the war it will maintain open-ended security control over Gaza and partner with Palestinians who are not affiliated with the Palestinian Authority or Hamas. It’s unclear who in Gaza would be willing to take on such a role.
Hamas has warned Palestinians in Gaza against cooperating with Israel to administer the territory, saying anyone who does will be treated as a collaborator, which is understood as a death threat. Hamas calls instead for all Palestinian factions to form a power-sharing government ahead of national elections, which have not taken place in 18 years.
Members of an NBC News team in Rafah saw hundreds of vehicles on the road, as well as some in a parking area and more at a tunnel crossing in Ismailia, roughly four hours and 125 miles from the border crossing. Satellite images from the last week also show trucks on the road and parked near the crossing.
According to Nossair, at the time, roughly 100 to 120 trucks enter Gaza per day — about half the number able to be processed by Israel, and a fraction of prewar levels. (Aid agencies and the U.N. say Gaza needs between 500 and 600 trucks a day carrying both humanitarian aid and commercial goods.)
Unclear restrictions imposed by Israel have resulted in an average of 20 to 25 trucks turned away every day, about a fifth of the number that end up crossing into Gaza, he said.
Supplies taken in wooden crates are rejected outright regardless of what is inside, Nossair said. If pallets of aid don’t fit the exact dimensions approved by the Israeli government, he says, those trucks are also rejected.
The Israeli government agency responsible for allowing aid into Gaza, Coordination of Government Activities in the Territories, or COGAT, told NBC News that 99% of the aid trucks are approved after being screened.
COGAT has said it places “no limit” on the amount of aid entering Gaza but subjects some items to higher security scrutiny.
“The State of Israel will continue facilitating humanitarian solutions for the Gaza Strip, however, it has no intention to compromise in any way when it comes to its citizens’ security,” the department said in a statement to NBC News.
Egyptian Red Crescent trucks loaded with aid queue outside the Rafah border crossing with the Gaza Strip on March 23.Khaled Desouki / AFP – Getty Images
A recent NBC News request for permission to travel to the Kerem Shalom border crossing to report on this story has been refused by Israeli officials. Both Kerem Shalom and Rafah in Egypt are restricted areas that require permission to access.
Israeli officials have also blamed the U.N.’s Palestinian refugee agency (UNRWA) for a failure to distribute aid. According to COGAT, UNRWA has not requested convoys north for six weeks.
A representative for UNRWA did not respond to a request for comment on the allegation.
UNRWA, meanwhile, also accuses Israel of obstructing aid efforts by rejecting convoys and turning away trucks for carrying items such as scissors included in medical kits.
Israeli accusations that at least a dozen UNRWA staffers took part in the Oct 7. Hamas terror attack prompted key donors to pull funding from the group and triggered a raging debate about the limited evidence Israel has produced.
The problem with freezers
Sometimes the issue is not the item itself, but what it is stored in, Nossair said.
For example, he said, Israeli officials have turned back insulin because it is kept in freezers.
COGAT has a list of what it considers “dual-use” items that are subject to stricter scrutiny, which mostly include chemical products, cement, metal and construction items. The list does not include coolers, painkillers, anesthetics or medical equipment, yet Nossair said everything from anesthesia to paracetamol is rejected.
Dual-use items are not under a blanket prohibition, COGAT said.
“They are subjected to security screening, since the Hamas terrorist organization cynically uses these means for the advancement of its terrorist objectives,” COGAT said in a statement when asked why certain items, and thus whole truckloads of aid, were sometimes denied entry and sometimes not.
Distribution of aid within Gaza is also a struggle, particularly in the northern area of the strip, where aid has been inconsistent. The World Food Programme has described convoy journeys to the north as dangerous due to desperate crowds and checkpoint delays that often leave teams open to violence. And even when convoys do make it to the area, they can be denied access by the Israeli military.
UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini said Sunday that Israel will no longer approve the agency’s convoys to travel to the northern area of Gaza.
“This is outrageous & makes it intentional to obstruct lifesaving assistance during a man made famine,” Lazzarini said in a post on X. “These restrictions must be lifted.”
COGAT responded to Lazzarini on social media, saying Israel facilitated more than 350 trucks of aid to northern Gaza in the last month. It also invoked Israel’s allegations that UNRWA workers had ties to terrorism.
The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification initiative, or IPC, released a report earlier this month warning that “famine is imminent,” particularly in northern Gaza, where the first deaths due to malnutrition were reported last month. COGAT wrote in a thread on X that the information used by the IPC was outdated and that aid has significantly improved in recent weeks.
Nevertheless, the World Health Organization warned earlier this month that children were dying from the combined effects of malnutrition and disease and that Gazans will face long-term health ramifications.
“This compromises the health and well-being of an entire future generation,” the WHO said in a statement following the IPC report.
Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the WHO’s director-general, warned that famine is looming amid the bombardment of Gaza even after increased efforts to deliver aid.
“Starvation and illness continue ravaging the population,” Tedros said on X. “Immediate, concerted action is needed now.”
Secretary of State Antony Blinken met with Arab leaders in Cairo last week, where he said the group of diplomats agreed more needs to be done to ensure the surge of aid from recent weeks is sustained over time and that “Israel needs to do more.”
BRUSSELS (AP) — The European Union intends to fast-track some of its aid money to Egypt using an urgent funding procedure that bypasses parliamentary oversight and other safeguards, according to the president of the bloc’s executive branch.
The 1 billion euros ($1.1 billion) intended for this is part of a larger package of 7.4 billion euros ($8 billion) in financial assistance to the North African country that the EU announced on March 17.
Egypt has for years relied on cash handouts, often from wealthy Gulf Arab states, as concerns mount that economic pressure and regional conflicts could drive more migrants from the region to Europe’s shores.
The EU package includes three year’s worth of grants and favorable loans for the Arab world’s most populous country. Most of the funds — 5 billion euros ($5.4 billion) — are known as macro-financial assistance, or MFA, and would be paid directly to Egypt’s Central Bank.
It’s rare for the EU to sidestep safeguards, but European Parliament elections are due June 6-9 — a timeline that if the checks were implemented, would slow the delivery of that money.
With those polls in mind, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen announced plans for “an urgent MFA operation for up to 1 billion euros” for Egypt, noting in a letter to EU Parliament President Roberta Metsola the country’s “rapidly deteriorating economic and fiscal situation.”
The letter, seen by The Associated Press, preceded the announcement of the deal with Egypt.
Von der Leyen blamed “a very large exposure to the economic effects of Russia ’s full-scale war of aggression on Ukraine, the wars in Gaza and Sudan, and the Houthi attacks in the Red Sea,” and said it was “imperative to make sure that a first significant contribution” would get to Egypt by the end of 2024.
To do so, the commission would employ a seldom-used part of the EU treaties, Article 213, which stipulates that the 27 member countries must endorse the funds — but not the parliament, the bloc’s only democratically elected institution.
Not even when COVID-19 spread in 2020 and the EU bailed out governments from the Balkans to the Middle East was this path taken. Nor is it used to keep Ukraine’s war-shattered economy afloat, although Kyiv did benefit from it a decade ago, when Russia annexed Crimea and hiked natural gas prices.
Apart from removing the need for parliamentary oversight, the urgent funding procedure also side-steps a requirement for an impact assessment on the effects of the assistance.
Von der Leyen said the new parliament that will be formed after the EU elections would be “fully involved” for the remaining 4 billion euros ($4.3 billion) of MFAs to Egypt, to be disbursed when Cairo agrees to implement “more comprehensive” reforms.
The deal also includes a 1.8 billion euro ($1.9 billion) investment plan and 600 million euros ($647 million) in loans, including at least 200 million euros ($217 million) that will go to Egypt for “migration management.”
The fast-track money would inject much-needed funds into the Egyptian economy, which has been hit hard by years of government austerity, the coronavirus pandemic, the fallout from Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, and most recently, the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza.
Usually, MFAs are meant for governments with dire economic woes and to encourage them to introduce reforms. Yet the commission acknowledges that Egypt is “sluggish” on policy revision and already has a “backlog of domestic reforms” to address.
Migration is a key factor driving the EU-Egypt deal. As in previous years, it will be an election issue in the EU and mainstream parties want to keep arrivals down to deprive the far-right of campaign fuel.
The deal in Cairo came just weeks after a pact was sealed with Mauritania involving money to help the country — a major transit hub for people moving through Africa toward Europe — beef up border security.
A more substantial agreement was clinched with Tunisia last July, expanding on a model the bloc developed with Turkey in 2015 to stop migrants reaching Europe.
While the Egyptian coast has not been a key launching pad for human traffickers sending overcrowded boats across the Mediterranean Sea to Europe, Egypt faces migratory pressures from the region, with the added looming threat that the Israel-Hamas war could spill across its borders.
The commission, asked by the AP what conditions Egypt should respect to receive urgent funding, said that “relevant and feasible reform priorities would need (to) be selected taking into account the corresponding time horizon.”
The commission’s website says macro-financial assistance must be “exceptional in nature” and that “a pre-condition for granting MFA is the respect of human rights and effective democratic mechanisms.”
Amnesty International has implored the EU to put rights abuses at the center of relations with Egypt — and the commission concedes that “human rights challenges in Egypt remain significant.”
Still, the EU’s executive branch maintains that “the political leadership in Egypt has taken several steps putting greater emphasis on the importance of the respect for human rights” in recent years.
Earlier this month, Egypt floated its currency and announced a deal with the International Monetary Fund to increase its bailout loan from $3 billion to $8 billion, moving to shore up an economy hit by a staggering shortage of foreign currency and soaring inflation.
Cairo’s coffers will also be replenished with $35 billion from a massive project involving an Emirati consortium to jointly develop the Mediterranean city of Ras el-Hekma.
Since coming to power in 2013, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi has relied heavily on Gulf Arab states, from where an estimated more than $100 billion entered Egypt via Central Bank deposits, fuel aid and other support.
___
Follow AP’s coverage of migration issues at https://apnews.com/hub/migration
(Bloomberg) — Thailand took the first step toward legalizing casinos, as the government looks to attract high-spending tourists to support Southeast Asia’s second-largest economy while also checking revenue leak from illegal gambling.
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The nation’s 500-member House of Representatives Thursday voted in favor of a study by a panel of lawmakers to allow casinos to be housed within large entertainment complexes. A total of 253 out of 257 lawmakers present voted in favor of the plan.
The lower house also gave initial nod this week to a clutch of draft bills that seek to reform the alcohol industry, including a proposal to scrap a 52-year-old rule that bans liquor sale between 2 p.m. and 5 p.m. Provincial officials may still be able to impose some kind of curbs on alcohol sale.
Deputy Finance Minister Julapun Amornvivat said the casino study will be forwarded to the Cabinet for a decision on whether legalizing casinos is “suitable for the nation.”
Thailand is the latest nation to consider competing for a pie of the global casino industry, which IBIS World estimates generated $263.3 billion in revenue last year. The United Arab Emirates set up a framework for legalized gaming in September, with the emirates of Abu Dhabi and Ras Al Khaimah seen as frontrunners to introduce casinos.
Galaxy Entertainment Group Ltd. and MGM Resorts International have been studying potential opening of casino resorts in Thailand as a hedge against uncertain prospects in Macau. Closer home, Singapore and Philippine casino operators are putting up a challenge to Macau, which garnered $22.75 billion in casino revenue last year.
The study found that Thailand can lift tourism revenue by about $12 billion by legalizing casinos and housing them within large entertainment complexes. Average tourist spending may surge 52% to 65,050 baht ($1,790) per trip once the entertainment hubs are built, netting an additional earnings of as much as 448.8 billion baht, according to the study.
Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin, who has been aggressively pushing policies to attract foreign investments to Thailand, had earlier Thursday backed the plan to legalize what he called “the grey economy” for better oversight and proper tax collection.
“It’s time for our society to stop hiding the gamblings, which are out there, and just properly regulate and take care of them,” he said. “I am not sure when the law will get approved and an entertainment complex can start operation. It will probably take some time. During the interim period, we need to tackle those illegal activities.”
Though most types of betting is illegal in Thailand — a majority Buddhist and conservative society — any opening of casinos will be in line with its recent embrace of a more liberal landscape to revive its tourism industry from the pandemic blow. In 2022, Thailand became the first country in Asia to decriminalize cannabis though it’s now moving to ban its recreational use, and is set to become the first in Southeast Asia to legalize same-sex marriages.
–With assistance from Patpicha Tanakasempipat.
(Updates with parliament move on alcohol industry in third paragraph.)
The UN’s top court has unanimously ordered Israel to enable the unhindered flow of aid into Gaza in order to avert a famine.
The International Court of Justice (ICJ) said Israel must act “without delay” to allow the “provision… of urgently needed basic services and humanitarian assistance”.
This follows warnings that famine could hit Gaza within weeks.
Israel has called allegations it is blocking aid “wholly unfounded”.
It has also denied allegations of genocide lodged at the ICJ by South Africa and has blamed the UN for problems with the distribution of aid.
The latest ruling by the court in The Hague comes after South Africa asked it to bolster an order issued to Israel in January to take all measures to prevent genocidal acts in Gaza.
Although orders issued by the ICJ are legally binding, the court lacks the power to enforce them.
Last week, a report by the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification Global Initiative, which is run by the World Food Programme and others, warned that a “catastrophic” situation was developing.
It said that all of the 2.2 million people in Gaza were “facing high levels of acute food insecurity” and that famine was projected to hit the north of the territory before the end of May.
In its ruling, the ICJ said Gaza was “no longer facing only a risk of famine” but “famine is setting in” and that, according to UN observers, 31 people, including 27 children, had already died of malnutrition and dehydration.
It also noted comments by Volker Türk, the UN’s high commissioner for human rights, who said last week that the “situation of hunger, starvation and famine” was “a result of Israel’s extensive restrictions on the entry and distribution of humanitarian aid and commercial goods, displacement of most of the population, as well as the destruction of crucial civilian infrastructure”.
The court said Israel must “take all necessary and effective measures to ensure, without delay, in full co-operation with the United Nations, the unhindered provision at scale… of urgently needed basic services and humanitarian assistance”.
The aid most needed included food, water, electricity, fuel, shelter, and clothing as well as hygiene products and medical supplies, it said.
The ruling also said Israel must ensure “its military does not commit acts which constitute a violation of any of the rights of the Palestinians in Gaza” under the Genocide Convention.
Recent months have seen long queues of aid trucks repeatedly forming as they wait to enter Gaza from Egypt, and accusations levelled at Israel that it is subjecting the deliveries to complex and arbitrary checks.
In a filing last week, Israel asked the ICJ not to issue the latest order, saying South Africa’s allegations were “wholly unfounded in fact and law” and “morally repugnant”.
It has also dismissed the broader case being brought against it under the Genocide Convention as “baseless”.
Israel has further said that Hamas takes much of the aid that enters Gaza and accused the UN of failing to distribute what is left to the civilian population.
The current conflict began after the 7 October attack, which saw Hamas-led gunmen storm across the border into Israel, killing around 1,200 people and taking more than 250 others hostage.
Of those taken, about 130 remain unaccounted for, at least 34 of whom are presumed dead.
Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry says Israel’s retaliatory campaign has killed at least 32,552 people. Earlier this month, US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said that, of those killed, more than 25,000 were women and children.
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